| Thwart thieves by freezing credit
When it comes to keeping a thief from obtaining credit in your name, consumers have a tough weapon in the form of a so-called security freeze. When you freeze your credit report, you thwart would-be thieves by preventing creditors from checking your credit history. Few lenders will lend you – or a thief – money without first checking your credit report. Texans got added muscle in September, when a new law took effect that allows consumers to freeze their credit report without first having to have a police report. Previously, Texans couldn't freeze their credit reports unless they were victims of identity theft. .
Indians wake up to identity thefts, still reluctant to react
As the cyber world unveils websites that let you live a 'second life', fake identities and identity thefts are fast emerging a menace giving spurt to hate mails and even serious crimes. Identity theft remains unrecognised by many Indians, but many may already be becoming targets even without realising it, experts say. One of the fastest growing crimes in the developed nations like United States, it is spreading in developing economies too. According to a website that monitors cyber crimes, in 2006, identity theft complaints made up thirty seven per cent (37 per cent) of all fraud complaints. With extensive use of social networking sites in India, the young population chatting for hours, however is unaware of the risks involved. Sharing personal information on social networking sites like Orkut, Tagged, hi5, etc.
Learn from mistakes, and grow
My high school teachers called me . . . the smart arse. I always had an answer for everything. Probably still do. I financed my first investment by . . . washing cars. I soon realised there might be other ways to make money. I learned most of my skills . . . by being thrown in the deep end and learning to sink or swim. Also being in a dynamic and fast-growing business, such as Ashe Morgan Winthrop, from its early days has been an invaluable experience. I think an important skill is learning from mistakes and for me one of the keys to being successful is not avoiding mistakes but learning from them. The best investment I've made is . . . ensuring I lead a balanced work/personal life and most recently it would be relocating with my family from Sydney to Brisbane to manage the strategic growth of our business providing equity and joint venture partnership options to clients.
Blackwater: Bulging Biceps Fueled by Ideological Purity
Blackwater, the secretive private army now emerging into public view, is a perfect hinge linking two key elements of the Republican political base: America's war machine and a muscular form of fundamentalist Christianity. Military contractors such as Halliburton and Blackwater are the brainchild of Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A major goal of Cheney when he was secretary of defense in the first Bush administration was to privatize as much military work as possible, ostensibly to make it more efficient. He commissioned a study by Halliburton, which predictably liked the idea and wound up as America's largest military contractor. Cheney was hired as Halliburton's chief officer, awaiting the return of a Republican administration. When that occurred, Cheney and Rumsfeld enthusiastically promoted privatization, and went so far as to include private contractors in the "Total Force" of the American military, standing never before given to contractors.
Q&A: Offshore wind farms
They construct a platform, and the turbine is assembled on top of it. Offshore wind turbines have big advantages over onshore ones. They can be built a lot bigger and there is a lot more wind out at sea rather than on land. How do they work? The technology is easily understandable: turbines are basically big windmills that use the energy of moving air to generate electricity. Sensors on the turbine detect the wind direction and turn the blades into the wind. The blades then power a generator to convert the energy into electricity. Undersea cables then carry the electricity to land where it goes into the national grid. .
Confidence in Brown takes 30-point dive as lost data crisis deepens
THE lost data crisis has sent public confidence in Gordon Brown's government plummeting, a poll revealed last night. Only about a quarter (26 per cent) of voters said they now considered the Prime Minister's administration "competent and capable" - down 30 points in almost three months. .
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